Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo just got a lot more colorful. Lorikeet Landing, a brand-new walk-through aviary, opened its doors on Labor Day, inviting guests to step into a living rainbow of free-flying lorikeets and lories. It is the first phase of the zoo’s new Wild Encounters area, and it is already winning hearts.
Inside the aviary, brilliantly colored parrots flutter from the ground to the treetops, perching nearby and sometimes landing on an outstretched arm. For a small extra fee, visitors can buy a nectar cup — $7, or save with two for $10 or four for $18 — and let a chattering, curious lorikeet sip from their hand. Zoo members get 20% off. Entry to the aviary itself is included with zoo admission.
Lorikeets are special among parrots: with their brush-like tongues, they feed on pollen and nectar instead of nuts and seeds. As they flit from flower to flower, they carry pollen along, making them valuable pollinators. Watch for coconut, Biak and Flores lorikeets, and learn to tell them apart with the educational signs about lorikeet body language. Laughing kookaburras and Luzon bleeding-heart doves share the habitat too.
Find Lorikeet Landing in Wild Encounters, reachable through the zoo’s West Entrance at 5500 Phinney Ave. N. or the South Entrance at 750 N. 50th St. It is an all-ages, up-close wildlife moment — the kind that turns a family outing into a memory.
Photo: Craig Newberry / Woodland Park Zoo
